1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and a control method of an image forming apparatus, and in particular, to processing concerning down event occurrence in an image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an image forming apparatus in the related art, a communication part is provided having a function to inform a service center of occurrence of a machine failure or such. With the use of the communication part, a function to notify of a fact that a paper jam has frequently occurred, a function to notify of a fact that supply end has occurred, and so forth are provided. Further, recently, there may be a case in which a contract is set between a vendor and a user such that a down time of an image forming apparatus should be prevented from exceeding a predetermined time during a predetermined period (for example, a week).
Further, in the related art, various arts have been proposed concerning maintenance service of an apparatus or a system, as follows:
(1) A network system configured in such a manner that a user can cope with various troubles of an apparatus such as a printer, while a maintenance service side can make an efficient apparatus management (see Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2001-344087):
(2) A support system configured in such a manner that, as a result of a service concerning a proposal to build and a management of an IT environment being provided via a single service window for a user in the lump, user friendliness is provided and a satisfaction is given to the user (see Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 2003-58644);
(3) A bus control technology configured in such a manner that an I/O bus bridge on an I/O bus and a reduction in a down time are achievable (see Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 10-333999);
(4) A trouble diagnosis method for a dump truck configured in such a manner that a trouble occurrence may be prevented, and also, a diagnosis may be achieved such that a true trouble cause may be found out rapidly (see Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 9-272372); and
(5) An ultrasonic wave diagnosis apparatus configured in such a manner that data of respective ultrasonic wave diagnosis apparatuses located in distant places may communicate their data mutually via radio communication systems of these apparatuses (see Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 10-137243).